If you are finding the pandemic punishing, spare a thought for museums and cultural institutions. At least, that was the urging, or “unanimous opinion”, of four gallerists who took part in a talk at Gallery Weekend Beijing, according to online publication Jing Culture & Commerce. Although that art event, which ran from April 23 to May 2, was able to welcome visitors in person to seven spaces in the capital, it also went online. Amber Wang Yifei, the director of Gallery Weekend Beijing, told art magazine Ocula that this physical-digital integration was indicative of an art sphere where “reality and virtual reality have become seamlessly intertwined”. Before Covid-19 confined Chinese tourists to their home country, they were driven by a growing desire to experience the world’s art and culture offerings. In 2018, the Louvre Museum, in Paris, saw 10 million people shuffle through its doors (and past the Mona Lisa ), of whom almost 75 per cent were foreigners. That year, the French government issued one million tourist visas to visitors from China – 800,000 of them went to the world’s largest art museum. The Louvre wasn’t the only institution to benefit. Galleries and museums across the globe were welcoming not only higher numbers of travellers from the Middle Kingdom, but also the money they spent in gift shops. Then Covid-19 hit, and suddenly these spaces that had become increasingly reliant on a steady stream of Chinese visitors were forced to rethink operations. Like the rest of us, most went online. Major European museums, including the British Museum, in London, and Madrid’s Prado, were quick to connect with Chinese audiences through the power of the live stream. Live streaming had been gaining momentum in China before the pandemic, with viewer numbers reaching 504 million in 2019, according to digital marketing agency Dragon Trail Interactive. “This surged again during lockdown, to 560 million streaming viewers by March 2020, 62 per cent of the country’s internet users,” the agency reports. “With Chinese consumers used to a live-streaming format, both for buying things and for getting to see new places and different lifestyles, it was only a matter of time before it took off for travel.” They just can’t stay in one place – 4 travellers’ pandemic stories The team at Chinese online travel agent Fliggy, which is owned by Alibaba (which also owns the South China Morning Post ), spoke to Jing Culture & Commerce last July about grounded Chinese tourists’ appetite for overseas cultural experiences, noting: “Despite suspended global travel, Chinese travellers’ desire to appreciate the beauty and art in Europe has not dampened, which makes this an opportune moment for cultural institutions and travel attractions to continue engaging via live streams.” A Fliggy-facilitated two-hour “VIP tour” of the Palace of Versailles, which in pre-pandemic times was one of the most popular tourist destinations in France, attracted more than 10,000 viewers and took them around areas that are off-limits to regular visitors. “Chinese travellers enjoy learning things on live streams that they cannot read about in travel books or websites,” reports Jing Culture & Commerce. “When travel eventually resumes under safe conditions, these destinations can build upon the virtual experiences and relationships they’ve built during this time, and attract tourists more effectively.” It is not just major museums that are betting this online to offline relationship will prove fruitful. The National Archaeological Museum of Taranto – the southern Italian port town is better known for its shoe factories and shipbuilding than its tourists – has partnered with a Milan-based marketing agency to build a presence on mainland social media and make essential information easily available in Chinese in the hope that, when Chinese tourists start travelling internationally again, Taranto will spring to mind. Meanwhile, the Louvre, which hopes to reopen its real-world doors on May 19, remains accessible, digitally speaking. On April 10, it launched a Chinese version of its website. In a press release, the president-director of the museum, Jean-Luc Martinez, said: “I am sure that this digital content is going to further inspire people to come to the Louvre to discover the collections in person.” According to Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times , “Many Chinese netizens expressed their excitement for getting access to the newly launched website.” Only time will tell whether that enthusiasm will translate into visits in the physical world. French embassy opens Croisements Festival cultural exchange in Shanghai Returning to the physical world is the Croisements Festival, the 2019 edition of which welcomed 2.3 million visitors. After a year spent online, the festival, organised by the French embassy, will run from April 26 to July 6 in 35 Chinese cities. Included in the programme is a Wassily Kandinsky exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Shanghai’s West Bund Museum, an exhibition of works by Alberto Giacometti at the Espace Louis Vuitton Beijing, and a fashion show in Shenzhen featuring Chinese and French designers presenting sustainable creations. According to Jing Culture & Commerce, “While programmes espousing cross-cultural exchange in China often hold little sway, Croisements Festival’s scale and ambition make it a powerful ambassador, one that genuinely introduces large audiences to French artistic heritage.” DIY graffiti fans add their mark to US$500,000 artwork If you’ve ever looked at a piece of contemporary art and thought, “I could do that,” you’re not alone. While viewing a large-scale painting (valued at US$500,000) by American graffiti artist JonOne displayed at Seoul’s Lotte World Mall in March, a South Korean couple mistakenly believed the paint cans and brushes presented on the ground as part of the piece were an open invitation to add to the artwork. The pair were caught in their artistic act on CCTV and later arrested. They were released without charge, however, after the gallery decided against pressing charges. On the painting, Kang Wook, one of the exhibition’s co-organisers, told Reuters: “We are currently in discussions with the artist about whether to restore it.”